The self-portrait in the Czech baroque painting

The se1f-portrait in painting is similar to an autobiography in literature. It is an unique testimony of painter' s life and art, of his desires, fears and whishes. It contains its own typical attributes: brusches, a palette, an easel with a canvas and specific studio clothes as well, which point to the painter's profession. Usually the sitter is in the contact with the viewer with the help of his eyes' sight. The deve10pment of the self-portraiture started in the Renaissance period, when the artist se1f-consciousness of his talent and uniqueness of his art spread. Painters started to offend against giuld rules which tied them. An important break into the obsolete system was the attempt to establish an Academy in Prague in 1709. The main authors ofthe project were the painter Michael Václav Halbax, the sculptor František Preiss and the architect František Maxmilián Kaňka. But their progressive idea broke down in the end. The barock self-portraits in the Czech painting were influenced by the previous period - the era of the emperor Rudolf II. and his great painters for example: Bartholomeus Spranger and Hans von Aachen. I diveded self-portraits into five chapters: the self-portraits alone, the se1f-portraits with attributes, the family self-portraits, the se1f-portraits in narative scenes, the self-portraits..